From the Sequim Food Bank: People who show up at just the right time

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, August 12, 2026

Recently a few of us on staff found ourselves talking about diapers — not the usual food bank conversation, but it’s become common. We’ve seen a real increase in young families coming through our doors in the last few months. Their stories are familiar: prices are rising, wages are stagnant, at a certain point the math no longer works. And, as funding for family services has tightened across sectors, some organizations that used to reliably supply diapers no longer can, so when families come for food, they’re also asking for diapers. We keep some on hand thanks to donations, but that day we were talking about needing to restock soon.

Not an hour later, a woman called asking how she could assist the food bank. We told her that her timing was perfect, “Diapers!” Later that afternoon, she drove up with an entire cart full of Costco diapers. When we told her how grateful we were, and how much families needed them, she turned right around, drove back to Costco, and returned with a second full cart.

That’s our community. Before we even reach out, they ask, they show up!

(Quick aside on the diapers: we’re well stocked for now, so no need to go buy more this week. But it’s the perfect example of what we mean when we say this community meets real needs here, often before we even start asking. Feel free to give us a call to find out what we need most currently.)

Current need: the Freezer Fund

Our large walk-in freezer has been a workhorse for decades, but we’ve known its days were numbered. Recently, when something happened that made it unsafe to continue using, later became sooner and we had to take it offline for good.

Thankfully, our team saw this coming and had already begun planning for its replacement.

The day it happened was a distribution day, so our volunteers were here in full force. One of them went home that afternoon and mentioned to her neighbor what had happened.

That neighbor picked up the phone, called us, and made a significant gift toward a new freezer — completely unprompted, simply because she’d heard, secondhand, that we needed help.

In true form, our staff pivoted without missing a beat. The Port Angeles Food Bank has generously stepped in to hold the overflow of frozen goods our smaller remaining space can’t accommodate — a wonderful example of food banks looking out for one another, though it’s a temporary fix, not a long-term solution.

We’re now raising funds to purchase new freezer capacity so we can keep meat and other perishables safely stored for the families who depend on us. If you’ve been looking for a concrete way to help right now, this is it — every gift to our Freezer Fund, whatever the size, moves us closer to fully replacing what we’ve lost.

Save the date: Everyone at the Table

Mark your calendars for our second annual Everyone at the Table, happening Saturday, Sept. 19, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

This is our chance to open our doors and show Sequim what we actually do — because while most folks know we’re here, far fewer know the full range of our programs.

Beyond regular distributions, we run a Mobile Food Pantry, home deliveries, Welcome Home foods for people recovering from hospitalization, weekend meal bags for kids, and we’re a founding member of the Sequim Health and Housing Collaborative (SHHC).

Everyone at the Table is where we share all of that — and remind anyone who needs food assistance that we’re here for them, no questions asked.

It’s also just a great party.

Our local volunteer chef is preparing all the food, a local band will play, and we’ll have a silent auction of about 50 amazing items, curated by one of our incredible volunteers.

Come hungry, come curious, come to celebrate community! It’s free and open to everyone.

This is also a wonderful opportunity for local businesses to show the community who they are and what they stand for. Any business that lets us know by Aug. 15 will be included as part of the event, and sponsors at the $1,000 level and above will be featured on our event flyers.

If you’re a business owner interested in sponsoring, we’d love to hear from you.

Celebrating our volunteers

Speaking of people who show up for us — we recently had our Annual Volunteer Appreciation Day.

Simply put, we have the best volunteers in the world. These are people who show up in pouring rain and blazing sun, on hard weeks in their own lives, because they know our neighbors are counting on them.

They hand out produce, direct traffic, and help people pick out the week’s bread with a warmth that makes our food bank feel less like a service and more like a neighborhood gathering.

Our volunteers bring more than labor — they bring dignity and connection to everything we do. Volunteer Appreciation Day was our small way of saying thank you, though no cake or certificate could fully capture how grateful we are.

Between the neighbor who called in a gift for a freezer before we even asked, the woman with two carts of diapers, our steady and creative staff, and volunteers who never stop showing up — I’m reminded every week what makes this organization, and this town, so special.

If you’d like to support the Freezer Fund, you can find details on our website or stop by in person. And as always — thank you, Sequim, for being exactly the kind of community that shows up.